Dazed and Confused: From Drugs to Rock n Roll

Text and photos: FURQUAN A SIDDIQUI

Audio: NISHATH NIZAR

“I liked my first high, the best high that I never felt or experienced ever,” recalls Danny, a middle aged drummer from a band named ‘Sahara’, remembering his first experimentation with drugs.

Centres for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) estimates that majority of the HIV/AIDS infection in youth is the consequence of drug abuse through the reuse of medical syringes. In India, primarily in metros and North-eastern regions, drug use is the major cause of the magnitude of this epidemic.

Freddy Valtea a resident of Mizoram started using the substance at 14. “I had tried quitting like 7-8 times before I ended up here. I even tried switching to different substances, but it didn’t work. Heroin addiction is so tough to get over.”

According to United Nations International Drug Control Program (UNDCP) report, there are about one million registered heroin addicts in India, and unofficially the number is estimated to be five million.

The number of rehabilitation centres in India for people suffering from HIV is very few. Realising the situation after being unable to find such a centre for his brother, Neville Selhore started Sahara Care Centre.

“In India, it’s more about the moral being of a person that is at scrutiny. People believe that if you have HIV you have done something ‘naughty’. But that isn’t the case most of the time,” offers Urvashi Gandhi, Manager Education & Training, Breakthrough, a human rights organization.

India has the third largest number of people living with HIV/AIDS. According to an estimate by NACO 2.27 million people are infected.

67 year old Joe, who has given up drugs, is a vocalist. He has recorded with Sony many times. He says, “I lost many years of my life to heroin. Although now I’m quite successful, I regret losing everything.”

Girl, Married

India is a land of a million cultures, traditions, beliefs and taboos. Child marriage is one of those seemingly strange rituals that seem to find no stoppage in growth in 21^st century modern India. Marriage in India is illegal under the age of 18 years for girls and under 21 years for boys. But the constitution of India has so many loopholes within itself, that according to statistics, more than 45% of marriages in India involve girls below the age of 18.

A walk into Nirmal Chhaya, a centre which consists of a welfare board for girls in the Tihar Jail complex, brings to us the stark reality of the number of girls that actually fall into the trap of early marriages.

Radhika (name changed) came to Delhi after youths lured her from her village in U.P. promising marriage and a good life. After coming to the capital, she was abandoned by the very people that promised her a new life, after she was found to be pregnant. When her parents came to know about this, they disowned her. Only one home took her in – the children’s home at Nirmal Chhaya.

Poonam Singh, a welfare officer at the children’s home at Nirmal Chayya says, “There are about 250 kids in this complex. There are kids from the 10 to 18 years of age. There are various cases that come to us – juvenile deliquence, parents abandoning their kids, young girls who are forced into marriage”.

Cases from within Delhi are very few in number when compared to the number of girls coming in from the villages of U.P, Bihar and even West Bengal.

At the children’s home, Lakshmi’s (name changed) parents have come down from Siwan to take her back home. But she doesn’t wish to leave Nirmal Chhaya. She is a very bright student and Nirmal Chhaya has been providing the education she was denied back home. The complex is visited by Subakshika, an NGO that provides schooling to the children for all grades. The psychological impact of a disturbed child is very difficult to read. (Play audio for more on the psychology behind child marriages in delhi)

Since the belief of child marriages are deeply rooted in Indian culture, one needs to sow the seeds of change and real knowledge within their own society and community.